Your Morning Dump… Where anything can happen on draft day

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

The 6-foot-4 [Terrence] Ross has operated in a vacuum for most of the season. But Ainge had heard enough to request that workout, and it’s easy to see why. Ross is that rare college player who not only can hit from 3-point land, but is also known for his mid-range game, including a nice touch on his pull-up jumper. His percentages suggest that he’s also efficient with his shot.

[…] If the Celtics want a shooter and scorer, there will be options with the 21st and 22nd picks.

They will be forced to beware of sliders. Beyond Ohio State power forward Jared Sullinger, the most notorious appears to be Baylor’s Perry Jones, a terrific 6-11 athlete and scorer whose motivation has been questioned. Besides, they already have a player of similar skills in JaJuan Johnson. They could get lucky if St. John’s forward Moe Harkless — a prototypical “power 3” — drifts far enough down the board.

Otherwise, they could do worse than to go for one of the most underrated players in the first round — Kentucky guard Doron Lamb.

This Herald piece mentions eight different players at two different portions of the draft, which basically tells us that the Celtics might trade up to try to get an immediate-impact player… or they might stand pat and hope someone decent is still available…

Who are they going to draft?

It literally could be anyone. Royce White’s name continues to come up, so it’s hard not to believe they’d pass on him at this point. But it’s so wide open that there is no consensus at all on who the Celtics will take. I Googled NBA mock draft and opened five of the top links. One of them gave me two different mocks…

… so in six different mock drafts… which means 12 available selections for the Celtics… there were NINE different names (Terrence Ross, Fab Melo, Jared Sullinger, Jeffrey Taylor, Terence Jones, Andrew Nicholson, Marquis Teague, Perry Jones, Quincy Miller) at all five available positions.

No one knows.

No one knows who will slide. No one knows which GM will make a boneheaded pick reaching for someone way too high. No one knows what Danny Ainge’s strategy will even be.

One thing I do know: If the Celtics stand pat and make their selections at 21 and 22… don’t get too excited. Those players will very likely NOT be impact players, especially if the Celtics re-sign Kevin Garnett. This team is not built for rookies to get much playing time. This isn’t the “learn on the job” team like the Charlotte Bobcats. This is “learn in practice from Hall of Famers and then maybe apply it in the D-League” town.

I don’t want to COMPLETELY dismiss the possibility, but it’s just realistically not feasible. Sure, Royce White could come in and be a player who had a condition (in his case, an anxiety disorder) that scared a lot of teams off and he slipped much lower than he should have gone… but it’s much more likely that the guys selected at 21 and 22 deserve to be drafted closer to the top of the second round than the first.

To sum this all up: temper your expectations for this draft. It’s “deep”, but deep in the sense that you might find a decent role player in the 20’s that won’t take 3 or 4 years to develop. It’s not deep in the sense that this becomes an Oprah-style give away…

“YOU GET AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT PLAYER… AND YOU GET AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT PLAYER!!!”

The draft is unlikely to fill an immediate need… so don’t even let yourself go down that road. People can’t even agree on who the C’s will draft and what positions they’ll fill… how can we expect them to make an immediate impact?

It’s almost like you guys are insane. Pierce and KG could be tottering around on crutches and you’d still be saying that the young talent is just going to have to sit and wait. For God’s sake, PLEASE don’t tell me that KG played like a young man last year, or that Pierce did. THEY PLAYED LIKE BRILLIANT OLD PLAYERS STILL ABLE TO MORE THAN HOLD THEIR OWN BY COMPENSATING FOR AGE WITH SMARTS. Neither of those guys can handle the minutes they once could handle. Nor can they dominate as they once could. They have adapted well. They can continue to adapt. But we need to play the young guys more, especially now that we have a normal season, with preseason and practices ahead.

It doesn’t matter that the young guys we will be getting won’t have the talent we would be able to get with higher picks, presumably. Like it or not, they will be what we have, so we have to use them. DO YOU REALLY THINK THE ALTERNATIVE IS TO TRY TO RIDE KG AND PIERCE HELL FOR LEATHER ONE MORE TIME?! No. That’s silly. We have to play the young ones more, even if they aren’t as talented as we would like. They will be what we have, unless Danny pulls off some stunning moves.

People act like just mentioning that KG and Pierce are future HOF players is like some kind of miraculous basketball blessing. Sheesh.

Shawncvd

1 year KG deal makes sense. Boston’s rebuild is not gonna happen by grooming marginal players. Next years free agent class is way more splashy so reload for short contracts sounds good to me. Bradley and Rondo plus last year’s rookie trio will grow while actually competing as a Dark Horse for the championship. That’s way more valuable to me than teaching young talent on the job and how to lose…

This better be a decoy by Ainge, to have others believe he plans on keeping those worthless picks {21, 22}…instead of trading up for someone with size.

If not, we`ll get to see KG`s final season be one where the Celts get out-rebounded every night again…by a 52-36 margin!

zippittyay

A “deep draft” also means that all the other teams drafting before us get better as well.

Rob H

Wouldn’t it make sense for them to trade up into the top 5 or 6? Anthony Davis will go 1st but no one knows who will go 2nd 3rd 4th,5th or 6th. Bradley Beal, Harrison Barnes, Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist or Dion Waiters the wing scorer/defender that they we need to complete a talented and serviceable bench. Or they could take a risk on Andre Drummond, move KG back to PF and see if he could teach Drummond to be a defensive athletic big man in a short amount of time. The picks they have will turn out to be good players in a year or two and teams like the Bobcats, Wizards, Cavs and Kings would be interested in developing because they have more than just one need. Package the picks with Jeff Green, Jajuan Johnson or both maybe? It makes sense for both sides.

thetitleisours

I think Taylor could play right away. And Danny could reach for Kyle O’Quinn instead of Melo. He could stash away Fourner too if that is his mindset. Right now Moultrie and White would be my best scenario. I had White and Melo before and that could work too Melo and Taylor would be the all defense choices.